The question, from journalist Kara Swisher to Sweetgreen cofounder and CEO Jonathan Neman, following a discussion on kale and robotics, was simple. “Are you profitable?” she asked, as a 2018 episode of her Recode Decode podcast drew to a close. “We are,” Neman replied. But when the Los Angeles-based salad chain filed to go public last October, it revealed financials that directly contradicted Neman’s response to Swisher. Sweetgreen had lost $31 million in 2018.
“Let’s end cancer as we know it,” President Biden told Americans during last week’s State of the Union address. Earlier this year, Biden rebooted the Cancer Moonshot program he started in 2017 to cure the disease that took the life of his son Beau and kills 600,000 Americans a year–a rate second only to heart disease. The initial program was granted $1.8 billion in funding over a seven-year period toward cancer research (which some argue is not that much money)
As we wait patiently for Old Man Winter to pack his bags and move south, let’s take a look at three interesting new apps. This month, we’ve got a budgeting app that dovetails with your paycheck, an up-and-coming group calendar app that aims to make short work of busy schedules, and a new podcasting app that makes high-quality recordings a cinch—even when you’re away from your computer. EveryTwo: Budgeting that aligns to your pay New budgeting app EveryTwo enters a cro
We are a society that shops—a lot. It is among the things we do the most—particularly during this pandemic. We’ve procured supplies, feathered our nests, replaced and renewed items in our homes, and bought more survival supplies and personal protective equipment than we’d ever imagined. So, how are we going to shop in the metaverse? We should start by asking ourselves what we want to buy and where and how we will be using it. If venture capitalists and Mark Zuckerberg
If you’re sending a text message or chatting on a work chat app such as Slack, you have a limited number of ways to express yourself. You can use plain text, of course, or emoji, or drop in a meme, or a Bitmoji, or a GIF from a TV show. And if you’re artistically inclined and have the time and software, you can devise your own memes or GIFs, but that’s a lot of work for most everyday communications. A new app called HiNote, currently available for iOS, helps bridge that gap.
The list of big U.S. tech companies halting sales of products in Russia expanded Friday, with Microsoft joining Apple and others in a growing show of solidarity with Ukraine. Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a blog post Friday that his company would suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia. “Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angered, and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked, and
Few video game companies find themselves in as awkward a position as Wargaming.net when it comes to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. With offices in St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as Kyiv, Ukraine, it’s a company that has something at stake on either side of the conflict. And that’s causing all sorts of discomfort for the developer of free-to-play military-themed action games that include World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes. The company, which is base
During the pandemic, there was one constant Americans could rely on: pizza. Stuck at home, Americans not only ordered record amounts of pizza delivery, but they started making their own pizza pies in earnest (how else to use all that sourdough starter?) And as COVID-19 surged worldwide, Ooni, a Scotland-based maker of sleek pizza ovens that sell for as little as $349, suddenly saw its sales explode. In 2020, revenue increased by more than 300%, say married cofounders Darina Garland and Kristian
At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some of my contacts in Taiwan suggested that China will be watching the conflict closely. Its eye will be on its own long-held desire to invade Taiwan and bring it back into the Chinese fold—an ambition with enormous implications for the tech industry and every aspect of life that relies upon it. Early on, when it looked like Putin’s Ukraine adventure would be a David-versus-Goliath battle that the Ukraine had little chance of wi
As a longtime user of Bandcamp, Epic Games’ acquisition of the online music storefront makes me nervous. The two companies are saying all the right things about the acquisition: that Bandcamp’s existing products and services aren’t going anywhere, that it’ll continue to compensate artists fairly, and that Epic’s backing will accelerate development on things that users already want, such as better search and site design. Yet the main reason I like Bandcamp so mu